City says it was ready for Oval concert

This is an initial rendering provided to the city fo Visalia of how Lincoln Oval Park would have been set up had “Peter Frampton’s Guitar Circus” concert gone forward on Aug. 29. The red line indicates the temporary fence that would have been put up around the park, and traffic around the park would have been detoured. Concertgoers would have been able to sit on blankets and lawn chair they brought to the event.
City of Visalia(Photo: Submitted)

Visalia officials said that after months of planning, they were ready for "Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus" concert next week at Lincoln Oval Park.

Not that it was going to be easy.

"Truth be told, we've never had an event of this magnitude at this location," Visalia Fire Capt. Dustin Hall said. The venue was being prepared for up to 2,000 fans to gather Aug. 29 in tiny Lincoln Oval Park in the city's north side to hear rocker Frampton and other guitar greats perform.

Hall is chairman of the city's Special Events Committee and serves as the liaison between city agencies and the Visalia Rescue Mission, which was putting on the fundraising concert.

"I would say it was large endeavor. It was time consuming ensuring that all aspects of the public health are maintained," but organizing the concert wasn't as difficult as some people may have assumed, Hall said.

Plans were to close off the less-than-2-acre park on Wednesday so equipment needed for the concert could be delivered there, including a portable stage and chain-link fencing that would have temporarily been erected around the park.

Concertgoers would have gone in and out of four openings in the fence.

One of the biggest challenges to putting on the Guitar Circus at the north Visalia park stemmed from the fact that it literally is the center of a traffic circle surrounded by street, one side of which is Highway 63, a major artery for traffic heading north.

A traffic plan had to be developed for the concert night, and it met the city's muster and received approval on the first round from the California Department of Transportation, said Hall.

Under the plan, traffic heading north would have been diverted east on West Murray Avenue and then west on North Santa Fe Street before and during the concert, keeping cars well away from Oval Park.

Visalia police would have been stationed at different points along the detour to help traffic move smoothly, Hall said.

Southbound traffic on Hwy. 63 wouldn't have been affected, as it already travels a block west of the park.

The permit to hold the concert allows for an audience of up to 2,000 people, well below the venue's limit of 3,000, Hall said.

Security would have been provided through a combination of contracted security guards and Visalia police, with a minimum of one officer or security guard per 100 people in attendance, and portable restrooms would have been hauled to the park, which has no permanent restrooms.

Plans were to offer parking for attendees at two sites in downtown Visalia, including three floors in the city's parking structure near Kaweah Delta Medical Center. City trolley buses would have transported people to and from the concert site.

Parking also would have been available north of the park at the Community Services Employment Training headquarters, 312 N.W. 3rd Ave., but people parking there would have had to walk to the concert, Hall said.

And while the streets that circle the oval would have been closed to traffic, businesses on the block would have been permitted to stay open before and during the concert, while residents and operator of shops on surrounding streets would have had access through side streets.

"It hasn't been one of the easier tasks, but it hasn't been a daunting event," Hall said on Wednesday, before word got out that the concert was canceled.

Despite people questioning through social media whether such an event could be held as planned at Oval Park and concerns about crime and drug activity in the area, Hall said he didn't hear any of it, and city staff had no doubts about their abilities to plan things out properly.

For his part, Hall said he believes concertgoers would have felt safe at the Oval concert.

"We knew we had the public-safety aspects covered," he said.

Still, he said, people wondered now successful it would be, whether the audience would enjoy a music concert in the tiny park rather than at a more traditional venue, such as the Visalia Convention Center.

"There's never been an event like this at this type of venue [in the city]. I think there was curiosity about it," he said.